The present invention relates to a battery-powered computer and a battery event managing method in the computer.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 11-016023, filed Jan. 25, 1999, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Various types of battery-powered personal computers have been developed for use at the place where the user is staying or for use in a car or train by which the user is moving from one place to another. Moreover, many of the desktop personal computers, not intended for portable use, can be powered by the battery so as to continue executing the process for some time, in case the externally supplied power goes off because of, for example, power failure.
This type of battery-powered personal computer is provided with various electric power saving functions to make the continuous running time in the battery-powered mode as long as possible. For example, one of the power saving functions is to turn off the display section, such as the LCD, when there is no input from the keyboard for longer than a specific period of time. For battery-powered operations, it is desirable that, besides the electric power saving function, there should be provided the function of checking for the remaining battery capacity and automatically executing the process (e.g., warning) the user wants according to the remaining charge capacity.
In the prior art, however, the charging and discharging of the battery was controlled by just monitoring the fully charged state and the low battery state. The remaining battery capacity was not checked minutely. For automatic processing according to the remaining battery capacity, a fixed process (e.g., warning sound generation) predetermined in the system was executed. The user was unable to set a suitable automatic process. That is, only a fixed process was executed depending on the remaining battery capacity, such as small remaining battery capacity.
As described above, with the conventional battery-powered computer and battery event managing method, it was impossible for the user to choose more than one remaining battery capacity freely and execute the desired processes when the remaining battery capacity reached the respective remaining battery capacities chosen.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to overcome the above-described disadvantages by providing a battery-powered computer which allows the user to specify the remaining battery capacity and a desired operation arbitrarily and can execute the specified operation automatically when the remaining battery capacity has reached to the specified remaining battery capacity.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a battery event managing method in the above battery-powered computer.
According to the present invention, there is provided a computer comprising event setting means for setting a remaining battery capacity point and an event which are specified by a user and relate to each other, and event generating means for generating the event set by the event setting means in relation to the battery remaining capacity point, when a remaining battery capacity has reached the remaining battery capacity point specified by the user.
According to the present invention, there is provided an event managing method in a computer, comprising a setting step for setting a remaining battery capacity point and an event which are specified by a user and relate to each other, and a generating step for generating the event set in relation to the remaining battery capacity point, when the remaining battery capacity has reached the remaining battery capacity point specified by the user.
The present invention enables a user-desired event to be generated at a remaining battery capacity point (or points) the user has specified arbitrarily. This helps meet the user""s requirements concerning system operation flexibly. The event includes, for example, the reproduction of the audio data stored in the specified audio file, the message display of the text file stored in a specified text file, and the startup of the application program stored in a specified program file.
Furthermore, the present invention enables an event to be generated in such a manner that an event generated when the remaining battery capacity point has been reached as a result of charging differs from an event generated when the remaining battery capacity point has been reached as a result of discharging. This makes it possible to fulfill the user""s requirements concerning system operation more precisely.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the present invention.
The objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.